Arthroscopic surgery is in common use to repair or reconstruct torn or detached ligaments and soft tissue or cartilage in joints. Injuries to joints are a frequent occurrence today, particularly with the modern emphasis on sports and other physical activity.
Many common joint injuries occur in the knee and shoulder joints. In order to repair torn or detached tissue in these joints, arthroscopic surgery is typically used. This surgery is less invasive and traumatic to the patient and results in faster recovery times and less scarring.
Arthroscopic surgery is difficult and time consuming. Most of the work is done in the joint with illumination and surgical instruments being passed through cannulas positioned in small openings in the skin. In order to allow the surgeon to work in these limited spaces, instruments with elongated arms or shafts have to be used.
Often during these procedures, sutures are used to hold ligaments or other soft tissue in position until it is reattached or healed. Since the tissue to be reattached has to be accurately positioned in order to permit the joint to function again as normally as possible, the sutures have to be accurately placed and tightly held in position.
It is often difficult to tie knots tightly in sutures in joints which are being operated on arthroscopically. Either an instrument has to be passed down the cannula to form and tie the knot at the desired site, or the knot has to be formed outside the cannula and pushed down the suture (through the cannula) into position.
Prior devices or systems used to tie suture knots during arthroscopic surgery are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,602,635 to Mulhollan et al; 4,923,461 to Caspari et al. and 4,961,741 to Hayhurst et al.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved instrument which ties knots in sutures during surgery. It is another object to provide an improved instrument which ties knots inside joints during arthroscopic surgery.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a knot tying instrument which is simple to use and which can be used quickly and easily. It is still another object of the invention to provide an instrument which forms and tightly ties knots in sutures in position during surgery.
It is still a further object of the invention to provide a unique and improved method for tying knots in sutures during surgery, particularly arthroscopic surgery.
These and other objects are met by the present invention which will become apparent upon review of the following detailed description of the invention in view of the drawings.